Customer Reviews

Thurn And Taxis

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thurn and Taxis (T&T) is a game showing the development of the German postal system. In this game player develop postal routes across Southern Germany by laying down different German cities that their postal carrier is passing thru. Upon completing a route, players get to position houses to show where their route was (you can either claim all of one district or one house per district you pass thru). Game play is quick, each round players perform a special task (enabling them to draw additional cards, play additional cards, have a new selection pile, or upgrade their coach). I've played this game in 2 and 4 player format. Both ways are fun. Four player games are typically more dynamic than 2 player games (the draw pile changes more frequently). Best of all, each time you play this game it's a little different in play.

Rating wise, I'd go 4.5 stars because I love the game play and the originality of the game. Despite this, I can't round up because there's something missing in the game, the ability to be competative with other player (you are competative to win districts to gain points, but I'd love it if there was more interaction between players...). Because of that I dropped it to a 4 star rating. No matter, enjoy the game!!

Thurn and Taxis involves building routes across Europe. As you build your route you place adorable little houses in the cities where you've been. The trick is, you get points for the length of the route, or for placing houses in all of the cities of a region, or placing houses in every region of the map.

Sound complicated? Not really.

And to make things more interesting, on every turn you can choose to lay down two cards, take two cards, switch cards, or level up, when the times is right.

Is a great replay game, since games between two people can vary drastically. The draw of the cards dictates some of the outcome, but the way you use what you get is more important.

Not a raucous party game, but very good!

The house of Thurn and Taxis founded the postal service in Austria. Rio Grande Games'"Thurn and Taxis" immerses players into the age of the Reformation where they will create the most efficient and grandest postal system in the Holy Roman Empire.

Thurn and Taxis was created by the husband wife team of Andreas Seyfarth and Karen Seyfarth. Most of you will recall that Andreas is credited with a title by the name of Puerto Rico. The Seyfarth Clan has not rested on this illustrious laurel; they have responded with Thurn and Taxis--and what a wonderful response this game is!

During a player's turn, he will take one of six cards that are available. Then he will play a card from his hand. Each card has a city on it. Players must play at least one card on their turn. The card played must depict a city that is adjacent to a city on a card they previously played. If you cannot play such a card, then all your played cards are discarded!

When a player is satisified with the length of his carriage (the amount of cards he's played), he may score them. You may either place one of your house tokens on all of the cities of the same color that you score or place one house token on each of the colors you scored.

There are several different areas on the board, all color coded. Players score points when they have one of their houses in all the regions of a color. These points diminish throughout the game; the first player to score a region will get more points than the second player...and so on. Also, players score points for having at least one of their houses in all nine regions. Again, these points diminish. Thus, players will have to be judicious with their actions; scoring points is a function of efficiency--just like the real post office!

In addition, players score points for having the long carriage routes. This happens in two ways. The first way is with diminishing points; the other way is with constant points but will force the end of the game. Once someone has earned the seven length carriage, the game will end.

There are four special actions that players may choose from during their turn. These are in addition to drawing one card, playing one card and scoring. These actions are 1. draw an additional card; 2. play an additional card; 3. remove the six cards from the board and replace them; 4. score a carriage that is two lengths higher. This gives the game lots of tactical choices. When will you draw an extra card? When will you play an extra? You need to score points in so many different ways...which is optimal?

The quality of the components in Thurn and Taxis is excellent. The cardboard tokens are thick and durable. The board is glossy, high quality and is resistant to damage. The box has enough compartments to store everything! (a little pet peeve of mine)

The game also comes with a booklet that has a brief history of the House of Thurn and Taxis...just for us history buffs! Ya gotta love the effort Andreas and Karen put into this game!

The rules for Thurn and Taxis are not very formidable. The typical nongamer may struggle a bit with them--but not much. The historical aspect of this game may be of consideration to teachers who want fun ways to drum up interest in history. The quality of the components and game play means Thurn and Taxis will be hitting the game table with some regularity. Enjoy this fine game!

This is a fantastic game that you can play again and again. After giving it to my fiancee for Christmas we played it with different groups of people 4 times over the next week and we never got bored. You can really get into the strategy of it all and try out a lot of different approaches.

The other nice thing is that people pick this game up very quickly. While playing with 4 players we generally found that the first time people play it usually takes about 2 to 2.5 hours for the game. For games when everyone knows the rules, it can go as quickly as an hour or 1.5 hours.

The game overall is lots of fun! The pieces themselves are very well made. The chips are a really hard, strong cardboard that feels very durable. You can't bend it unless you *really* try. Very vibrant colors and good art. Fun to look at while playing.

Definitely recommend picking this game up!

My wife and I are big fans of the games Settlers of Catan and Carcassone. Some of our friends introduced us to Thurn and Taxis. We liked it so much, we decided to buy it after only playing the game once. Since buying it, we have played it almost every night for the past month.

'Thurn and Taxis' is my favourite German board game, and my wife and I have played it more than any other game from our collection. It's surprising how addictive it is, especially considering the game's theme is the development of the 16th century German postal system, not a subject I would ordinarily feel very strongly about!

The aim of the game is to build postal routes connecting various cities. Build longer networks and you get grander carriages (worth more points). The game's territory covers what is now southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Lodz in Poland.

But there are several other ways to get points. For instance, gaining control over a single province will get you the most points for that province, while the runner up will get the second most points. Some provinces are harder to get than others, with Bavaria being the largest and hardest (and hence worth more points), but some of the smaller provinces can also be tricky due to access problems.

You also have one special option per turn - either drawing an extra card, playing an extra card, choosing a new selection, or upgrading your carriage. Choosing the right special option is one of the keys to playing well.

The game is for two to four players, and quicker with two, but even with more it still plays in less than an hour. There isn't as much player interaction as with some other German board games, but 'Thurn and Taxis' makes up for that with its balanced variety of scoring techniques, which often leave the winner a surprise until the end.

The box includes historical information on the aristocratic House of Thurn and Taxis, but neglects to mention that a member of this family (Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis) was Rainer Maria Rilke's patron when he wrote the Duino Elegies.

If you are gonna buy a stupid game made by Hasbro rethink your inks. They are all the same. Roll your dice; move your mice. Thurn and Taxis and other games like it (Dominion, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico, etc.) are so much better that once you play this type of game you'll wonder why you ever wasted your time buying hotels on Park Place. Thurn and Taxis is a superb example of the genre. It's got a good theme, based in history. Beautiful pieces and board. And the players succeed with strategy and tactics as they endeavor to build the most robust postal system in Bavaria. Enjoy!

Rio Grande games needs to hire someone English born to go over their rules. Otherwise their games are usually great. This is no exception. We enjoy playing it. You won't be disappointed if you want something new and different.

We have played this game 6 times since we received it and we really like it. We have played it with our 12 yr old son and he enjoys it, and we play with adult friends that request this game. Great fun! You can quietly play without comments or you can help each other out and just hope to be the winner.

Being a fan of other German-style board games (such as [The Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, and Ticket to Ride), I was given Thurn and Taxis as a gift. I do enjoy it. There is a definite element of strategy to it that creates an intellectual challenge. That said, I don't like this game as much as some others. I think the main negative for me is that there is relatively little contention between players for resources, and so the game becomes a race to complete a high-scoring set of routes faster than everyone else.

The game in a nutshell:

* Players draw and play city cards in an attempt to form connected routes through the various historical provinces of Germany and the surrounding area.

* Upon declaring a route completed, players put houses of their color in cities along the route. Out of all the cities on the route, the player can choose to build in exactly one city on the route per province, or to build in all cities on the route in a single province.

* Completing a route may also complete one or more goals, which are worth victory points. The goals include building in each city in a province (or each city in a pair of small provinces), building in at least one city in each province, and playing a long route. The first person to complete each goal gets more points for completing the goal than the next person, and so on until no more points are available for the goal.

The game really is a very individual-oriented competition. Other players have the power to slightly reduce the value of your strategy by completing the goals faster, and they have the power to slow you down by taking the cards you need before you can grab them, but the ability of any opponent to completely block your path or invalidate your strategy is quite limited otherwise. This means that the difference in the game can often rely more on who got the luckiest choice of city cards than who was the most skilled player that day.